I felt very much impressed of
the Lord this morning to speak to you on these last three verses
of Job chapter 1. I felt the need for it in my
own soul. And I felt that there were those
here that very much needed to hear this message this morning. And I trust that the Lord will
give us the full blessing of His Spirit, the blessing of the
liberty of His Spirit, that we might be able to speak this morning
to the honor and glory and praise of our blessed Lord. We're thankful
this morning that God has permitted us to be here, and I hope this
morning that you're thankful that you're able to be up and
about. God has given you strength, and given you breath to breathe,
and given you the ability, providentially, to be here this morning. May
the Lord bless us together. I read, beginning with verse
20, then Job arose. Job arose after hearing all of
the news concerning what had happened to all of his goods
and to his family. So Job arose and he rent his
mantle, he rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down
upon the ground, and worshipped, and said, Naked came I out of
my mother's womb, naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly, or charged
God with folly. I'd like, first of all, this
morning, in opening up this message to you, I'd like to talk a little
bit about how Job handled his trials. Now, you're aware of
his trials. We read this chapter, and I hope
that most of you listened Carefully as we read it, always listen
and reverence the Word of God when it's being read. Pay attention
to the Word of God and listen very carefully. But I wanted
to speak a little bit this morning on how Job handled his trials. And Job, as we see here in the
three verses that we've just read, that Job did not try to
hide his sorrow. And neither did he attempt to
conceal the outward signs of his sorrow. Now a man of God
is not expected to be like a stone or like a rock. A man of God,
we know, has had by the grace of God that heart of stone taken
away, and he's been given a heart of flesh, a heart which he can
feel something with. He's not a stoic, but he's a
man who can feel, and his heart is tender, toward the strokes
of God's rod upon his back. And Job knew that this was the
hand of the Lord upon him. And so Job was very, he was very,
his sorrow he did not try to hide it, but he was open with
it. Now we read here in verse 20
that he arose and he rent his robe, that's an outward sign
of his sorrow, and he shaved his head. Now in Job's day it
was permitted for men who were expressing mourning for affliction
and for bereavement, it was permitted for them to shave their head.
Under the Mosaic law, it was not permitted because the heathen
would shave their head when they were mourning and God's true
people were prohibited from doing so. But we see here that Job
very outward, he didn't try to conceal his sorrow, but he shaved
his head and he fell down upon the ground. He fell down upon
the ground. I mean the wind was taken out
of him. I mean he was totally exhausted
by the news that had come his way that he had suffered the
loss The temporal loss here of all of his goods and then the
beloved children which he had by the blessing of God had received
from the hand of the Lord was suddenly removed out of this
world. They were taken away and the
very wind was taken out of his soul and he fell down upon the
ground. And we read here that he worshipped.
Now this is very significant, and I'll mention something about
that in a few moments. But now, beloved, when we have
to endure the wrath of God, we will feel the strokes. We're
going to feel the strokes. And when the hand of God is upon
us, Now Job felt these blows that fell on him and we also
shall feel the hand of God upon us and do not blame yourself
if you're conscious of pain and grief in the day when God visits
you in the day when the Lord is pleased to bring you under
affliction and under the hand of trial and bring you into that
situation and Circumstances in your life when great stress and
pressure comes upon you and when great loss is yours, do not blame
yourself if you're conscious of pain and grief. And do not
ask that the Lord make you hard and callous. Do not ask that
he do so, because the Lord would have you to be of a tender spirit,
able to feel, in order that you might be able to rejoice with
those that rejoice, and sorrow and weep with those that weep. And I believe that the Lord's
intention in all of our lives is to make us able comforters
of others. And that's the reason why I believe
God gives us a tender spirit, is that he wants us to partake
of his hand and blessing and then to be able to share his
discipline with others. Now grace just works this way. It makes God's people tender,
but then it also makes them strong to bear up under the trial. And
so my friend, we do not ask that God take the load off our backs. but we ask that he gives us more
strength in our backs to bear the load in order that we'll
learn all that God would have us to learn in our experiences
here in this life so that we'll be able to minister to others.
Now we must recognize the fact that a man is the sum total of
his experience and certainly that is true with a child of
God. A man knows nothing beyond what he's experienced. And for
a man to get up to begin to talk about affliction by the rod of
God and begin to talk about chastisement and begin to talk about God bringing
him under the hand of stress and pressure and shutting him
up as it were and hedging him about where that he can't feel
anything but just simply misery. Listen to me, misery and grief.
I'll tell you this morning that this is only by the grace of
God that a man is able to deal with that. It's only by God's
grace. And he is not able in that situation
to talk about those things in an edifying way to the people
of God unless he's been through it, unless he's experienced it.
You can't read that out of a book and then get up and try to minister
unto others. And so you must hear all the
voice of God and hear the blessing of God and the Word of God in
your trials and then you can do something. And I believe this
gives us patience and submission. It gives us patience, the ability
to stay under the load. when we know that this is the
hand of the Lord, and when we bear up, as old Job did, even
though we feel it, and even though we express, even though we weep,
and even though we show that we're mourning, and we're not
to be judgmental toward those that mourn, I know the scripture
says that we're not to sorrow as others who have no hope as
the people of God, but certainly there ain't anything wrong with
an individual sorrowing, and I wouldn't be judgmental of somebody
that wore black at a time of bereavement. No, I wouldn't judge
them. I think they must be left with
the Lord and with his leading in their life and whatever they
feel that is the best way for them to express their mourning,
then that's okay with me, as long as they don't go to the
extent where they deny the hope of the gospel and deny the truth
of God's resurrection in the end. I believe we're all to be
mindful of God's purpose and plan for men. And I do not believe
that death is an accident. I believe that men die according
to the purpose of God. I believe that death is not only,
not only is it a judgment for sin, but I believe it's also
a blessing for the people of God in that that God removes
them from this world of sin and woe, and takes them yonder to
be with Him for all eternity. And so, there's nothing wrong
with mourning, and that's the point I'm trying to make. And
it gives us patience and submission under the hand of God when we're
being tested. Now we benefit by the feeling,
and there's no sin, as we said, in the feeling, because the Bible
says in verse 22, in all this Job sinned not, nor charged God
foolishly. And so when you grieve and weep
and mourn, you're not sinning against God if you do not carry
it to extremes. And may God give you the discernment
to know how far to carry your bereavement and your mourning.
Now we take note also here that our mourning should always be
sanctified with devotion. We see Job here, he fell down
upon the ground and he worshipped. He worshipped God, he worshipped.
Now beloved, it doesn't say that he grumbled, it said that he
worshipped. He didn't say that he found fault
with God for all that had happened to him. He didn't say that he
said anything about if, and, but, or. It says that he worshipped. He worshipped the Lord. Now,
what does this mean? Well, in Psalm 62 and verse 8,
David said, Ye people, pour out your heart before him. ye people
pour out your heart before him. Now what that means is that you
turn your heart upside down and you dump out all of the grief
and all of the pain and the misery in your heart brought on by your
losses and crosses and your bereavements. You pour it all out before it
ferments and sours and something awful comes forth out of your
heart because the Lord has brought his hand upon you. You pour out
your heart before the Lord, and if this is the spot, beloved,
of your Gethsemane, where you're made to sweat and agonize before
God, emptying up your heart and the venom of your heart, praying
it out before the Lord, this is what you're to do, and this
is exactly what this means. worship god now the the worshipers
of god of the true worshipers of god are the true circumcision
who worship god in the spirit and they have no confidence in
the flesh and here we have jobe worshiping god in this time of
bereavement and in this time of loss and so how important
that is and that kind of worship is the kind which lies in adoring
god and making a false surrender of yourself to the divine will. This is worth. Now you don't
get the first base and you've never got the first base if you're
one of them people that every time you have a bad day, every
time you lose something, you just are out of sorts. to the
point where you can't pray, to the point where you can't bless
God, to the point where you can't read the Word of God, to the
point where you can't talk to anybody sensibly and with a kind
spirit and attitude because you're all out of kilter because something's
happened in your life. or something awful happened in
my life. What was it, friend? What was
it? Well, somebody bumped into my bumper and they bent it out
of shape or somebody hit my fender or I had a bad day. I was on
the highway and I got arrested by a policeman and he said this
and he said that. That's a bad day. My friend,
you hang around a little while. You haven't seen a bad day yet.
I mean you just wait around and one of these days you're going
to have a day that's really going to be a bad day. A day maybe
like Job had. I remember hearing a woman say
one time, well you know back years ago I had two children
got sick and both of them died in one week. Oh there's never
been anybody suffered like I suffered. Wait a minute now, hold on just
a little bit, that's not quite so. Here's old Job, he had ten
of them taken out of the world in one day. Oh, what misery,
what pain, but he worshipped, and this is the point. that I'm
trying to make. And I believe this is where a
man finds out whether or not he's really submissive to the
divine will or not. Find out whether or not it's
his will he wants or whether or not it really is God's will.
Find out! whether he believes in the wisdom
of God or find out whether or not he thinks he's pretty smart,
intelligent himself. I'll tell you, this is where
a man finds out something about himself. What does he do when
he get in trouble? Most people, when they have a
little bit of trouble, they just quit coming to church. I mean,
they give it up. They say, well, I just ain't
going to do that. I ain't going to church anymore.
You know, they're sulking and selfish, and they've got this
idea that they pity themselves. They're not worshippers of God.
They don't believe in the wisdom of God. They don't believe in
a God who's too wise to err and too holy not to do right. They
don't believe in a God that is always on top of every situation
and that nothing ever happens without him knowing about it.
They don't know anything about that. They're not worshippers
of God. They might be a little worshipper
on a good sunshiny day. I mean, when that sun is shining,
it's beautiful, they might go out to some nice building somewhere,
some nice edifice and say, well, praise Praise the Lord. Praise
the Lord. Everything just so nice today.
Well, my friend, I want to see you whenever the hand of God
has come upon you. I want to see you when the stroke
of the Lord's hand is upon you. I want to see you when you've
suffered some real genuine losses and when you've had some real
crosses in your life. I want to see you then. Where
are you going to be then? You're going to be worshiping
God or are you going to be out here singing a bad tale somewhere? I'm telling you, this will determine
where you're at spiritually and how much you really know about
the God of the Bible. I think this will alleviate our
sorrows, don't you, if we can get it straight that this is
from the hand of the Lord, like old Job. Now he said a little
bit later here, he said, I came out of my womb naked. naked shall
I return thither he said the Lord gave the Lord have taken
away blessed be the name of the Lord now beloved there's about
four things here that Joe seemed to know that he expresses in
these verses that I want to talk about a little bit but before
I get to those four things I want to say this that we must if we're
God's true children we must in the time of difficulty, struggle,
trial, and bereavement, we must have some things fixed, some
themes, some truth ready at hand that we can lay hold of, that
we can draw comfort and steadfastness from. We've got to have some
things close at hand Because we're living in a world that
the most certain thing is change in this world. It is certain
that things are not gonna stay like they are. Things are gonna
change in your life, and you can count on it. And you better
have something at hand that you can draw some help from that'll
sustain your soul and enable you to worship God. Now listen
to me. You must get an anchor. You must
hold on to some great Bible truth and derive consolation from that. You must be able to drill the
truth of God into your own soul. And when you learn this art,
of talking to yourself, and speaking to yourself, and teaching yourself,
and enabling yourself, as it were, to draw the honey from
the comb, and to draw the sweetness from the word of God to your
own soul. Then, you're gonna be able to comfort others. But
I invite you to turn, hold your fingers here in this place, but
I just wanna show you two or three verses that I believe will
be a great help to you if you can get them fixed in your heart.
whenever these times of great suffering come your way. Turn
to Jeremiah chapter 10, and I want you to look at verse 23. Look
at verse 23 with me. These are things, and then I'm
gonna go back to Job, I'm gonna briefly point out four things
that Job believed that sustained him in the hour of his suffering. But here, in verse 23, here we
have the prophet Jeremiah, The children of Israel are about
to be carted off by a heathen king, our own Abrakaneser. He's coming down from the north,
and there's a great noise. It says in verse 22, the brute
is coming, a great commotion out of the north country to make
the cities of Judah desolate and a den of dragons. Other words,
horrible things are about to fall before the land of Judah. And listen to what he says. He
says, oh Lord, oh my friend, when you begin to hear the rumble,
I mean when the storm begins to come and the wind begins to
blow and the thunder begins to come out of the, everywhere around
you and you're afraid in your heart, listen to me. Here's what
happened. Here's what old Jeremiah said
in verse 23. Oh Lord, I know, I know something. Jeremiah says, I know something.
And this is so important. How many people know this? Not
very many people know what he's saying, but I want you to listen
to him. He says, I know that the way
of man is not in himself. I know the way of man is not
in himself. I know that in God's eternal
purpose, every step of Judah's way, what he's saying is, is
mapped out. I know the way of man is not
in himself, and he said, and he, God, will make it all work
out for his own glory and for the good of the child of God. Now, nebuchadnezzar purpose,
but God disposed. The man deviseth his way, but
the Lord directeth his steps. Man is not, listen to it, he
says I know the way of man is not in himself. Now this he speaks
as a fact. He says, now you know we're always
saying if so and so would have done such and such. and if I
would have had the opportunities that other people had, oh, if
so and so would have just done what they ought to have done,
oh, how much different things would have been in my life. Oh,
if my mother would have been a praying mother, oh, if my daddy
would have been more pious, how different things would have been
in my life. Oh, if so and so hadn't squandered
their money, how different things would be. Well, I want you to
listen to old Jeremiah. He says, O Lord, I know that
the way of man is not in himself, and it's not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. It's not in him. Not in a man
that walketh to direct his steps. So man, beloved, listen, you
need this. What he knew was this, that the
affairs of this world are not under the control of men, however
much they may imagine. You see, men think they're the
author of their own destiny. They think they're the master
of their own ship. Oh, man thinks he's top dog in
this world. But I'm here to tell you, my
friend, you're not top dog. I'm here to tell you that your
steps are ordered by the Lord, and that you are not the master
of your own ship. Now, there are so many things
that happen in our life, our experience, that ought to teach
us that. Many, many times we have plans made. I mean resolutions
made. And we're going to do such and
such and so and so. We're going into such and such
a city. We're going to buy, and we're going to sell, and we're
going to get gain. That's what we're going to do.
We've got it all mapped out, and anybody interfere with it,
we're going to make it. But something happens. Insurmountable
the object is can't do it. I mean we're out of business.
We cannot do it Well, what are you gonna say about that? You're
gonna get all inflamed. Are you gonna lose your religion?
What little bit you've got or what are you going to do? You're
gonna bow your knee and say well I You know, I ought to note that
I should make such resolutions because the Bible says, an old
prophet one time said, Lord, he says, I know that the way
of man is not in himself, and I know I'm subject to God. And
I know that I cannot, if the Lord don't command, then it will
not come to pass. If the Lord doesn't bless to
the doing of it, I'll not be able to do it. And so another
thing is, too, that It's better that we not have our own will,
because our own will, natural will, is evil. You think God
ought to step back and let you run things? No, your will is
bent to sinning. You're biased towards sinning.
And you've got that old will, that old natural evil in your
will, that Adam, you remember? And the Bible says, we all like
sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. And the philosophy of the hour
is eat, drink, and be merry. for tomorrow we shall die. That's
the philosophy. And that's a philosophy of your
own nature. All your own nature says, I just want to do good
by me. I want to make sure everything's
okay with me. But I'll tell you, God directs the steps of his
people. And our health is another obstacle
at many times. You know a fellow feeling good?
He's doing fine. I mean, he can get out, he can
go do what he wants to do. He's got strength, he can do
Whatever he plans to do, and he's got great plans, and lo
and behold, somebody broadsides him or he gets sick, something
happens to him and he's out of commission. And then he says,
well, if this had to happen or if that had to happen, he blames
everything. One of the things you take note
of is that old Job, he never blamed the Sabians or the Chaldeans. He never blamed them for what
happened. He never looked to second causes. No. And so we need to learn this
lesson and hide it away in our hearts. Whenever our affairs
go bad, our business goes bad, Whenever our situation, I mean
the money dries up, and the situation is bad, we don't have anything
to do anything with, we need to learn something, my friend,
and quit saying this if, if, and blaming everybody around
us, and begin to say, oh Lord, I know that the way of man is
not in himself, and it's not in man, that walketh to the repsy
steps, turn with me back to Proverbs chapter three. Now you hide that
verse in your heart. And you say, well, that fella
or this guy or that evil man, listen to me, God overrules all
evil. And men, the Bible says, are
His hands. They're His hands. And you need
to look beyond second causes and look to the hand of God.
Proverbs chapter 3, I want to read verse 5, 6, and 7. So shalt thou trust in the Lord. That's verse 5. Trust in the
Lord. Now what is this trust? This
trust is having confidence It is an act whereby a man leans
spiritually with all of his weight upon God. Act of faith. The object of trust is God, the
good, the faithful heavenly Father. We trust in His word. We trust
in His promise. Trust in the Lord, it says, with
all thine heart. How far is this to go? With all
thine heart. Trust in the Lord. Whenever you're
in trouble, my friend, trust in the Lord. Any limit to this
confidence is a heinous provocation of God Almighty. You say, I can't
trust the Lord in that. I've trusted the Lord to save
my soul, but I cannot trust Him for a crust of bread. I trust
the Lord to save my soul, but I cannot trust Him with my goods. I trust the Lord to save my soul,
but my relation, I can't trust the Lord with my relation. You
ever think that way? Did you ever slip up on yourself
and listen to what's going on in that old heart of yours? Whatever
you're carrying on and what are your fits of depression and your
fits of discouragement, have you ever listened to yourself?
Oh, I believe. Did the Lord say, oh yes, I believe
he's my Savior. I believe he died in my room,
stayed in place. I believe my sin's been put away.
Hallelujah, I'm a Christian. Oh, you are. But I just got problems
trusting the Lord, my bank account. I can't hardly do that, preacher.
Just can't do that. I can't trust the Lord with my
business. Well, now you need to get a hold of yourself, my
friend. The Bible says, listen to me, trust the Lord with all
thine heart. Entire exclusive it means entirely trust the Lord
with all your heart Now the third thing is that I want you to see
here and lean not unto thine own understanding Now this is
where a lot of trouble people have a lot of trouble, but you
need this verse Whenever trouble comes lean not your own understanding
now that means your own apprehension of things the way you understand
them You say, the way I understand this preacher, that I wouldn't
have this trouble if it wasn't for my husband. The way I understand
this preacher, if it wasn't for my wife, I wouldn't be in this
spot I'm in. Well, that may be true, humanly
speaking. It may very well be true. But
you're to lean not to your own understanding. That means to
repudiate your own intelligence. That means when you look at a
situation you don't look at it and say this is the way it is
because this is the way I see it. You say it's the way God
views it and I'll bow my knee to his will in it because you
know it's not like I just knowed him a day or two. You see I've
knowed him a long time. I've knowed him a long time.
Well, how long have you known your neighbor? Oh, I've known
him 25 years. Well, I mean, surely you've got
a little confidence if you've known him all that time. You've
been trusting him, have you? Well, surely a man can trust the Lord
if he's known Him in a length of time, and he ought to repudiate
his own intelligence and look at it like God does. And if he
can't see it like God does, then just wait a while. Our thoughts
are not his thoughts. Our ways are not his ways. As
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are the Lord's ways
higher than our ways, His thoughts and ours. Wait on the Lord. Look
to Him to reveal His situation. Repudiate your own intelligence.
The carnal mind and the human reason is the two worst enemies
the child of God has in this world. This thinking things out. Well, I've got to think it out,
preacher. Well, why don't you just commit it to the Lord and
let Him bring it to pass. Wait on the Lord. repudiate your
own intelligence. Man with all of his pride feels
that he wants something to lean to besides God. He doesn't, he
can't just, you know, fallen man naturally leans to himself
and to his own notions and his own fancies. He's got little
sense. Have we really? Since the fall,
how much sense we really got? I'll tell you this, that any
Intelligence that would make you question the God of the Bible
is evil, and you need to repudiate it. Any intelligence you've got
on the matter that would make you say, well, I suspicion here
that God means to destroy me with this thing. Oh, my friend,
my friend, you're wrong. You're wrong. You just wait on
the Lord. Just trust God. Lean on Him. Repudiate your own understanding. Be not wise in your own eyes.
Be not wise in your own eyes. It said, fear the Lord and depart
from evil. In all thy ways you acknowledge
Him. Acknowledge the Lord as you read the Word. And whenever
He says something to you, acknowledge it. This is God's way. You pray
when the Spirit of God directs your heart. You acknowledge it.
The Lord has directed me. Believe what God says. Believe
the Spirit's leading in your life. Acknowledge Him, and He'll
direct your path. If any man lack wisdom, let him
ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and abradeth not,
and it shall be given unto him. You know what it says? Let him
ask in faith, nothing wavering. Just believe God and trust God
and lean upon him, lean upon his wisdom. Well, those are two
portions of scripture that we could get fixed in our hearts
to argue with ourselves when things go wrong. Back to the
book of Job quickly, and let's notice these four things that
Job points out. Number one, now these will help
us as they helped old Job. This is what he looked at. when
he was in trouble. And number one, let's notice
what he says about the brevity of life. The brevity of life. In verse 21, and he said, naked
came I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I return thither. I come forth, and he says, I
go back to the womb of the earth. I come forth from my mother's
womb, I'm going back to the womb of the earth. And he said, why
do I need all these things? I'm going to go the way of all
flesh very soon. Why do I need all them camels?
Why do I need all those sheep? Why do I need all those things?
Job was cleaned out. He was wiped out. Why do I need
all of that? You know, life is very brief. One time there was a wise Christian. And there was a fellow, that
was a friend of his, and this friend asked him one day, said,
explain life to me. And the fellow, the old wise
Christian, he stood there for a moment or two, and then just
turned around and walked off. And the next day the friend saw
him again and said, hey, I asked you a question yesterday, and
you didn't answer me. And he said, I asked you to explain
life to me, and you said you were here and you were gone.
And the old wise Christian said, that's exactly my answer. You're
just here and then you're gone. And you know Spurgeon said that
he looked on life as a procession. And he said that he saw his people,
all those people that attended the tabernacle, he saw them going
by, walking by, going by. And then he said, others coming
behind me, going and being gone. taking them, following their
caskets out to the mortuary, out to the uh... cemetery and
he said but one of the most difficult things for me to do is to put
myself in that procession and you see that's what we gotta
do we gotta put ourself in that procession because we think that
we're immortal every one of us do we don't think we're gonna
die no we don't but Job said I came out of my mother's womb,
I came out naked And he said, I'm going to go back to the womb
of the earth very shortly. That's going to be my home. And
all I'm going to have in the end is two by six. That's all
the space I'm going to have. Ain't going to have anything
else. At the beginning is nakedness. I come into this world with nothing
but my mother's love. And I'm going out of this world
naked. You know, most of the time people They will laugh and
they will rejoice at the birth of a child, and then weep over
the death of a loved one. And it ought to be just the opposite. Just the opposite. We ought to
mourn when children are born into this world, and we ought
to laugh and rejoice, sing praises to God when aged saints are taken
out of this world. Because that's the order, that's
the way it ought to be. Okay, so he was willing to go
because he had losses. And losses that a man has makes
him desire to depart and to be with Christ. And any loss that
will make you in your heart say, Lord, in this big pot of names,
that you're drawn from to take saints out of this world. Lord,
let my name come up very soon. Let my name come up. Let my name
be the next name you draw out of the pot. Any trial, affliction,
loss, bereavement that makes you have that kind of attitude,
my friend, it's game. It's game. For an example, let
me illustrate. Let's say a man is walking across
a plowed field. and it's rained a lot and it's
that old gumbo sower and he's walking across there and the
further he goes across that plowed field and big balls gets on his
feet. You ever do that? One time years
ago when I was about 14 years old I helped a fellow plant 10
acres of tomatoes one spring in Indiana and we had to put
canvases over our backs three or four of us in a row here as
we was planting them tomatoes because it poured the rain that
whole spring And that field was so muddy, and you'd get a little
piece, and your feet would be so heavy, you couldn't raise
them up. Now, beloved, that's the way this world is to a child
of God. So many hindrances. And you're plodding along there.
And directly, you just gotta get some relief. You just gotta
start kicking that stuff off. And I'll tell you what happens
when things begin to be taken away out of your life. When they're
taken away. You feel yourself a little freer,
don't you? And you feel like you're kind of like old Enoch.
When Enoch walked with God, you know, and somebody said, well,
he took a walk one night. He went so far. And then he came
back. And then he took a walk with
God the next night. And he walked a little further.
And he came back. And then the next night, they
walked further. And they got so far away from home, the Lord
said, just come on, go home with me. Ain't no need of going back.
And that's the way it is. Is it not for a child of God
in this world? We got to get this stuff off. And so any loss,
any cross, any trial that shucks this stuff off, and these hindrances,
things that make it hard to die when they're taken away. One
time an old fellow, he owned a big piece of property, nice
place, and he was walking with another Christian, And as they
were looking at that property, they got up on a hill and they
looked down. Oh, what a beautiful place. And that old Christian
brother said to his friend, he said, you know, it's going to
make it awful hard to die when your time comes. It'll make it
hard to die. And you know the Lord so dealt with some of us,
it ain't going to be so hard when it comes to die. It ain't
going to be so much that glittering stuff around that's going to
be laying hold and latching on to a guy and blinding him to
the true riches. No! I'm telling you the Lord
means business and I want you to understand that he does. And
old Job said, the Lord here, my life is short. Now the second
thing I see is the length of time we have are these earthly
possessions. He said, I came out naked. And
naked, he said, I'm going to return. He feels himself to be
very poor. Everything's gone, he's stripped,
yet he seems to say, I'm not poor now than I was when I was
born. I still got a little bit left,
but I was poor when I was born into this world. Paul said, we
brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out.
And if I have but little now, I shall soon still have less. You know, it's amazing how people
think about their goods. And some people say, well, I
had some respect one time when I had good clothes. You didn't
have the respect. They respected your clothes.
They didn't respect you. Somebody said, well, if I had
all the animals and if I had all the trucks and if I had all
this that I used to have, I would be somebody. Well, you're just
as much somebody right now as you was then. You just got the
wrong idea about it. Job lost everything. He was still
old Job, wasn't he? Old Job, the believer. Old Job,
the worshipper. Old Job, the man whom God had
laid a hold of and done something to him. So it don't make any
difference how short you are, my friend. That's when it comes
to goods. You're still God's child, God's
servant, and we need to learn something about that. That these
possessions that we got is not the thing that we need to get
our eyes on. If we do not fare so sumptuously,
listen, it's nakedness in the beginning, we said earlier, nakedness
in the end, and if you don't fare so sumptuously in the middle,
what difference does it really make? It really don't make that
much difference. It's a grand thing when God helps
us to live above what we have and above what we have not. It's
a grand thing indeed. Well, the next thing is this.
It's the hand of God which gives and takes away. Did you get what
Job said there? He says, and the Lord gave and
the Lord hath taken away Blessed be the name of the Lord. He did not say I earned it all.
He didn't say, you know, I worked hard for what I got. He did not
say, well, now you know that I just, you know, I invested
well. That's what happened. And I've
done well. I'm not against all that. I'm
not against all that. I'm not against working for what
you get. And a man, the Bible says, shouldn't
eat unless he works. I'm for all that. But if a man
says, well, I earned it all. I want you to know that Job said
that the Lord gave and the Lord taken away. They are a gift from
Him who has a right to take it back. He got a right to take
it back. Now let's say that I go in my
house and if things are right and there's a picture on the
wall and I go in the house and I take that picture down and
I take it away and directly say my children were around the house
my wife come in and saw that picture gone and she says well
who took that picture to the kids and the kids say well father
took that picture he took it now if she's right that'll be
the end of it she won't say another word about it she'd be just like
that fellow who was a gardener and he had these beautiful roses
in his garden And he knew where every one of them was. And one
morning he came in there and one of the choice roses was gone.
And when he came, he said, what happened to that rose? Somebody
said, well the master came and picked it this morning. He never
said a word. And I'll tell you this, we need
to learn this, that we must live above what we have and what we
have not. Because the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, and
we must realize that lock, stock, and barrel, everything we have
is a gift to us. The very breath we breathe is
a gift. And we'd all be beggars if it
were not for His grace. Every one of us, listen to me,
you'd be penniless You'd be a beggar, maybe homeless, I don't know
where you would be, and I don't have a clue as to where I'd be
if it wasn't for the grace of God. And you can complain today
all you want to about your lot, but your lot is better than you
deserve for it to be. I don't care how bad it is, it's
better than you deserve for it to be. And you need to get that
fixed. in your mind. Okay? Now Job equally
saw God's hand in taking them away. What would he have said
if he had not been a believer? What would he have said? We often
find fault with second agents and I'm sure that's what Job
would have done too. But he has nothing to say about
the Sabians or Chaldeans or the wind or the lightning. The Lord
said he, the Lord, hath taken away. He gave it, he took it
away. To know that It is God's hand
that will take away the sting out of the stroke. Never mind
these secondary agents. Do not spend your strength kicking
at them. They are responsible to God for all the evil that
they do. But back of these there is a
divine predestination. They are taken away. How did
they leave? Well, the Sabians or the Chaldeans,
but it is not in man that walketh to direct his step. Nebuchadnezzar,
he could never, he could never carry away the army and the people
of Judah. Divine predestination. You gotta
believe it, my friend. And nobody triumphs over these
kind of trials like old Job did, except they believe that God
gives and takes away. There's an overruling hand. It's
the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good.
Job did right in calling attention to this blessed truth that God
is everywhere at work, whether in giving or receiving. God has
done it, and that's enough for a believer. God has done it.
God has done it. Now the fourth thing, Job's comfort
lay in this truth that God is worthy to be blessed in all things.
Let us never rob God of his praise, however dark the day is. God
should be praised as much on a day when there's a funeral
as there is on a wedding day. Is that right? Amen? Are we mature
enough to accept that? God is to be praised. Somebody
said, but business is bad, preacher. But God is to be praised. My health is gone, preacher,
but God is to be praised. Well, he's to be praised for
both giving and taking. God especially to be praised
by us whenever we're moved by the devil to curse God. What was it old, what Satan said?
He'll curse God. He'll curse you to your face.
He will. Now believers ought not curse.
They ought not curse. They certainly ought not take
the Lord's name in vain. I want to make that crystal clear.
Now, we're not naive either, are we? You never had a time
whenever you let a few oaths come out of your mouth when things
were tough and when you were difficult? I don't want anybody
to confess to it. I'm just telling you that Satan
said, Job's going to curse you to your face. And what was it
his wife said to do? Said, you just curse God and
die. You say, well, preacher, I wouldn't
do that. I remember hearing a story one time, and you forgive me
for telling this story, because some of you may feel like it's
maybe not appropriate, but it is, in my judgment. Anyway, there was a boy, and
he had this lawnmower, and he couldn't get that thing started.
Oh, it was a terrible start. He just worked with it, and worked
with it, and worked with it. And the little boy that he was,
once in a while, he'd say some things to it he oughtn't to say.
So he finally got tired of fooling with it, so he put it out in
the front yard and put a sign on it for twenty bucks. Twenty
dollars. Sell the lawnmower. So there
was a Pentecostal preacher that came up the street, lived down
the street a few blocks, and he saw that lawnmower and he
said, Sonny, he said, you want twenty dollars for that lawnmower?
He said, that's a nice looking mower. And the boy said, yes.
And he said, well I'll just buy that mower. And so he bought
the mower and took it down the street. to his house and he was
gone for three or four days and he came back up and he knocked
on the door where the little boy lived and the little boy
come to the front door preacher said now sonny that's a good
looking moor but he said how in the world did you ever get
that thing started and the little boy said well he said I worked
with it and I worked with it and I pulled that rope and I
pulled that rope and I pulled that rope and he said and a few
times I said a few things to it I ought to say it I mean I
cursed it a few times And that old preacher said, well now sonny,
I got over that a long time ago, and I just don't do that anymore,
and so that'll never work for me. And the little boy said,
well if you pull that rope long enough, he said it'll come back
to you. And I'll tell you what, I'll
tell you there are times when we get between a rock and a hard
place. I mean when things are tough! And we pull that rope,
and we pull that rope, and it comes back. Am I telling you
the truth? It'll kind of come back to you,
and you have to nip it in the bud right quick. But I'm just
talking to people that believe in depravity, you see, and know
that these things are true. But anyway, I want us to see
that whenever we're tempted, when we're tempted to curse God,
it's a time to praise God and bless God from all of our heart. Okay? Then, in that time, whenever
the devil suggests otherwise, then we should praise the Lord.
I heard this story about a fellow back in the thirties and he had
a little money not much but there's some people lived out the road
from where he lived and they were very very poor back during
the depression days so he said one morning he got up he said
I'm gonna give that family a dollar and the devil said well now you
can't afford to give them you can't afford to give away a dollar
and so the man recognizing being a little wise and he's soul spiritually
he said all right I'll give him two dollars and to the devil
said well now he says you're becoming a fanatic and the fellow
said okay I'll give him five dollars and the devil said well
now what are you going to do what's your wife going to say
when you get home and tell her that you give that family five
dollars And the old man said, well, I'm going to give them
ten, and if you keep running your mouth, I'll give them everything
in my pocket. And so, beloved, the moral of
the story is that everything the devil suggests, you just
do the opposite. And anytime you get up on a cloudy
day and the devil said, you don't need to praise the Lord today,
Why the Lord? Why somebody else will do it?
Ah, my friend, you're doing the opposite of what the devil tells
you to do, and you praise his name. You glory in the Lord. Just do the opposite of what
he tells you to do. And if you'll obey the Lord in that respect,
I believe you'll come out in the day of real suffering. You'll
come out to be a genuine, faithful follower of the Lord. Well, it's
about 12 o'clock. I guess I'll have to quit. I
had a few resolutions I maybe was going to bring at the end.
What should we do here? Well, let me get them to you
right quick. I'm not going to keep you. I'm not going to preach
on these things. Let me just give you these resolutions right
quick that I've got here. I think I can give them to you.
if the Lord wills. Let me just say that we ought
to make a resolution. We ought to be careful about
making resolutions. I believe that would be the first thing
that I could say about this. Be careful about making resolutions. Be careful about your plans,
about making plans, and saying this is the way it's gotta be. Be careful about that. Be submissive
to the Lord's hand. Always be submissive. Always
pray if the Lord wills, I'll do this or I'll do that. And
if you'll do that, I believe the Lord will bless you. And
never trust in present security in the flesh. Don't ever trust.
You remember what Paul said? You tell them that are rich not
to trust in uncertain riches. Don't trust them. You trust the
Lord. Cast yourself on Him. I hope
there's been some things in this message this morning that you'll
be able to remember, and that'll be a blessing to you, and that
we'll be able to deal with our trials like Job did, whatever
be the degree of suffering we're called upon to suffer, whatever
our situation, that we'll be able to deal with them as he
did. May the Lord bless you. Father, in the name of Jesus,
we give thanks for your word. Ask now that you lead us and
direct us and guide us. And Lord, may this message, may
we be able to retain it in our soul, and may it benefit our
hearts. May we be greatly strengthened.
We pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.